1 vol. (76 ff.), manuscript. Written on vellum in a single seventeenth-century hand, Charles Fairfax's autograph. Bound in leather with some blind tooling on the outside covers and spine. Worn throughout with some text now illegible.

Scope and Content

Contains a collection of Fairfax family records, written chiefly in Latin, but with some English poems and sentences included in it, by Charles Fairfax for his son Henry, including many coats-of-arms.

Administrative / Biographical History

Charles Fairfax (1597-1673) was an antiquarian, genealogist and compiler of the Analecta Fairfaxiana. He was born at Denton in Yorkshire, but spent most of his life at Menston, on his wife's estate. In 1646, his brother Ferdinando, second Lord Fairfax, appointed him steward of the courts of Ripon and he later served as a colonel of foot in Monck's army. Following Monck's march into Yorkshire, Fairfax became governor of Kingston-upon-Hull, but after a year he retired to Menston to pursue his antiquarian and literary interests. His son, Henry Fairfax (1634-1702) became dean of Norwich. For fuller details of the latter's life see the Dictionary of National Biography.